China’s Luxury-Car Sales Hitting Speed Bumps

Double-digit growth in China’s lucrative car market may be tapering off. The WSJ’s Colum Murphy tells us why some auto makers are factoring in slower growth in 2013.

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.

I ... the the ... in China are showing up at the Shanghai auto show By is demand beginning to taper off ... I'm Deborah con joining me now is reporter Paul Murphy from Shanghai ... ok decline in U S where we've been hearing for years about foreign auto makers to targeting China ... because of ... how many people are are purchasing cars added to gains but is that growth beginning to taper off ... will be closer to the reading is the jewel passenger car market is around eight percent which is so very very healthy ... but so what was concerned the street who was the ... statements by some of the premium car manufacturers ... but they were talking about the aims of the city's Grand slams out the Fritz awful ... some of these ... car makers for saying that you know they're ... striking a very cautious tone for the year ahead ... into the BMW I was saying that he was expecting growth in two thousand thirteen ... of the upper single digits now ... the airline that last year at this company has net sales growth in China for two percent and it's quite is that its ... turnaround ... the companies are saying you know this is normal market is maturing ... but we think this others to ... dissipate soon analysts are saying that ... obviously there's the economic situation in China ... economic growth is not as strong as it is in fact ... disappointing first-quarter ... nevertheless among those for the people ... on top of that he also ... pay an austerity drive or anti corruption drives its being ... spearheaded by the ... incoming ... president Xi Jinping ... starting to trickle down effects conspicuous consumption ... is ... frowned upon increasingly here in China and I will ... start to have some ... in hopes ... of some of the premium policy makers ... some of these things combined ... is ... already the reason why they're coming out with these very cautious statements for the year ... at a time when tough competition from Chinese brands any we've seen in recent years a lot of Chinese ... fans heading into the my getting granted an awful UN summit on the luxe tree sighed the more on the affordable range but ... if the market possibly getting too crowded in China ... well is one ... of ... these but it comes to to brown spirits the most friends anymore it works ... E-mail shows it just goes to show it's just this booth at the booth with ... different brands for names that ... you know I haven't heard of ... not that it's just unbelievable there's so many brands and are still coming to market ... to the SU question is yes it is very regret but ... I'm not all of these my ... friends will survive that's for sure ... the Chinese currency definitely improving ... and we will see to gain market share Sony ... but they still allow weeks ago and she mentioned ... that the premium sector people are saying that it would be at least a decade before we see the re emergence of a Chinese premium brands ... in this in this category ... so for now they're trying to move from going to need me that's ... the sound reasonable success but it's by no means a given below ... that ... is to dominate the whole market anytime soon ... a K and I of course that the Chinese government has made and grain and isn't it the priority in recent years ... what are we seeing on in the green car Elekta carers of markets ... and in unity they they do have to address this explosive growth ... in cities like Beijing Shanghai outward traffic is not the solution is is definitely a concern ... is the electric car industry getting that this that that the government had had wanted it to ... no I'm actually that's one of the team sets throughout the show is hosting a separate electric ... vehicles which are green ... cars in general ... the debate here is whether ... the country should jump straight to pure electric vehicles ... are whether the games room ... hybrid's type of solution would be more appropriate ... the Chinese government is still pushing the purity be ... alert to may be signs that the might be changing this song because realistically ... at your TV is still a very long way from being accepted by the Chinese consumer ... is expensive even though there is a very generous ... incentives here ... it's still not something that the average Chinese consumers to ... buy at this point ... so unless there's some kind of modification ... of government policy ... and making it more realistic and it been dying for incentives there are a broader range of hybrid cars ... green technology wheel cars in China it's still ... a question that really needs to be resolved and that is going to get station sites ... see I think it's been a lot of places in Hong Kong which is that they were more electric cars on the bed ... thanks alot Hong Kong where the reporter joining me from Shanghai for more on that story and other ... stingrays on Shanghai's uninitiated added Avista dot com I'm Deborah con ...